Recoleta Cemetery

National Historic Monument; The City'S First Public Cemetery, Opened 1822, With Dozens Of Vaults Individually Declared National Historic Monuments · Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires

Recoleta Cemetery is a city of the dead laid out on a grid of streets, with around four and a half thousand above-ground vaults built by the families who ran Argentina in its richest decades. Opened in 1822 on the garden of a Recollect friars' convent, it became the place where presidents, generals, writers and landowners competed to be remembered, in marble, granite and bronze: Greek temples, art nouveau chapels, neo-Gothic spires and sculpted angels, many of them the work of European sculptors. Dozens of tombs are national monuments in their own right. Most visitors come for one grave, the black Duarte family vault where Eva Peron lies, which is modest by the standards around it and always has flowers. The rest reward wandering: the girl said to have been buried alive, the boxer in his dressing gown, and the vaults left to decay with coffins visible through broken glass. Cats sleep on the tombs. Next door stands the colonial church of El Pilar, and the park outside hosts a weekend fair.

Junin 1760, Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, C1113, Argentina

Open every day from morning to late afternoon, with last entry some time before closing; confirm current hours. Non-residents now pay an entry fee. Guided tours have been offered on set days in Spanish and English. The Plaza Francia craft fair outside runs at weekends.

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